Tag Archive for "Yes"

Roger Dean original goes up for auction!

Roger Dean Original YesShows Artwork

This is the original artwork for the Yes album “YesShows” by the iconic and highly sought after artist Roger Dean. This piece was commissioned from Roger Dean by prog-rock band Yes in 1980. This stunning signed original acrylic Roger Dean painting is on board with collage measuring 26 1/2 inches by 17 1/2 inches and comes complete with certificate issued by the San Francisco Art Exchange LLC.  Confirmed valuation of $260.000 from the Art Exchange (£163.000 approx) issued in December 2009 from the same source, is included in the sale. The valuation for this Roger Dean painting has substantially risen over the past three years, and looks to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Roger Dean’s unique artwork featured on 23 album covers for Yes alone. Along with other bands including Atomic Rooster, Uriah Heep and even The London Philharmonic Orchestra his album artwork has sold 60 million copies worldwide. For a Roger Dean painting like this to come to auction at all is extremely rare.
This Roger Dean original will appeal both to Yes collectors and art enthusiasts alike, both of whom will appreciate the worth of a Roger Dean original painting. If you have any queries or wish to obtain further details then click here.  If you don’t know what this is all about or are after Roger Dean’s posters then click here.

Should Roger Dean sue over Avatar film?

As far as we know Roger Dean was not involved at all in the Cameron film Avatar but clearly his influence is there and has been recognised by a lot of people.  Some outraged long-term Roger Dean fans searching in vain for a credit at the end of the film are calling for Roger Dean to sue Cameron.  Others are are asking why he wasn’t honest enough to acknowledge Roger Dean’s influence or involve him in the project. You’ll find all this and a lot more in the discussions and articles on these links –

Digital Spy – designs in Avatar seem remeniscent of Roger Dean but not ready yet to call for Roger Dean suing Cameron. Then there are blogs with stuff like this starting to think there is an issue that needs addressing.

Stupid Future – Roger Dean wants his floating islands back – now it is getting a bit more serious.

Plus of course, the long-term YES fans (Roger Dean did many of the band’s covers and designed their stage sets) have their say here and they are rather more unhappy about their favourite artist being ripped off.

There was also a mention on Roger Dean’s own site but it appears to have disappeared. 

The Artists UK Roger Dean section is here.

What do you think?

Tales from Topographic Oceans by Roger Dean

This whole double album LP was based completely on a footnote on page 83 of Paramahamsa Yogananda’s autobiography (usually known as ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’). It is divided into four parts to correspond with the four shastric group of texts referred to in the footnote that are essential elements of the Vedic tradition in India which is in its turn the foundation of Hinduism and other religions (who all claim the Vedic tradition as part of their traditions but which pre-dates all of them by thousands of years and was entirely different in its character to the later religeons!). The album came out in 1973 to critical acclaim both for its music and it’s incredible cover painting by Roger Dean, which blends fantasy and surrealism. The speed lines on the fish appear on the original album cover but not on later posters etc. As usual for Roger Dean, a combination of techniques and mediums have been used starting with an airbrushed background. The “stars” have been hand-painted on, not sprinkled in blobs. Roger Dean designed the lettering of the title and the YES logo became a firm identifier of the band throughout the seventies.

This Roger Dean landscape or under-sea-scape includes some famous English rocks taken from the Dominy Hamilton postcard collection – Brimham Rocks, the last rocks at Lands End, the Logan rock at Treen and single stones from Avebury and Stonehenge. Jon Anderson, YES’s singer, wanted the Mayan temple at Chichen Itza included and Alan White the drummer wanted the markings from the plains of Nazca so these are in the painting as well.

Not every YES album has carried a Roger Dean cover but he is firmly connected with the band in the mind of every long-term fan. His paintings are large and he works on a massive easle when he paints. I once jokingly suggested to him that he doesn’t know how to paint a small picture! Tales From Topographic Oceans with its waterfall under water is just a surrealistic masterpiece!

Relayer by Roger Dean

This album followed on from Tales from Topogrtaphioc Oceans and came out in 1974. The sound is quite different in places which is mainly due to the departure of Rick Wakeman and the arrival of Patrick Moraz on keyboard duties. They were both extremely accomplished musicians but with quite different styles. The first track (that is just under 22 minutes long!) ‘Gates of Delirium’ is based on part of Tolstoy’s ‘War & Peace’. The album, in true progressive rock tradition, only has a total of three tracks!

The full cover has a great rattlesnake on the back cover whose tail can be seen down the bottom left of the front cover. The “impossible” rock walls on this cover are another trademark of Roger Dean. He likes to push back the frontiers and improvise and experiment (one of his paintings for Uriah Heep combined almost every artistic medium you can think of from collage to oils to watercolour etc).